October 9, 2013

SARAH GWYNN: Thank you for joining us. Your win last year, just talk us through what that meant to you.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, obviously it was great for me, 3 1/2 years since I won The Irish Open, so it's been a while since I won anything. I had quite a few good finishes, but to get that first win‑‑ I felt like I kind of kicked on a little bit this year. I felt like I put myself in position more times than not to win this year and it's been good for me.
SARAH GWYNN: And coming here again in prime form after a good performance in Scotland a couple weeks ago.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, probably should have won at the Dunhill. Gave myself a great chance. I'm playing quite good recently, so coming here in good form, love to play, so really looking forward to this week. Q. How much does what happened at the Dunhill whet the appetite, sharpen the appetite? What is it about needing to be in the habit of coming down the stretch?
SHANE LOWRY: I just need to put yourself in position. I think if you put yourself in position, back nine on Sunday is really‑‑ you obviously want to be in with a chance going in on Sunday, even within two or three of the lead on the back nine on Sunday, all of a sudden, a good nine holes, you're the winner.
I was the one leading going into the back nine on Sunday at the Dunhill and didn't really do it from there, but gave myself a great chance. You know, Gleneagles, gave myself a good chance; I was in the third‑last group at theDutch Open. I feel like I've been sort of pushing to win tournaments this year, and you know, I just learn from every week and one of these weeks when I give myself a chance, I'm sure I'll pull it off. Q. Do you feel you’re building a bank of experience of being in those situations?
SHANE LOWRY: Exactly, well‑‑ I was going to say you're never going to do it your first time, but I did. But you're never‑‑ you need to learn and you need to, it's like you need to learn how to win. You need to learn how to compete at the highest level. It's like a step up in the Majors; you need to learn how to play in the Majors.
It's just all about building experience and going from there. You learn to be comfortable, when you see your name on the leaderboard on a Sunday afternoon, it's hard. It's hard to not get ahead of yourself and not think about winning and just one shot at a time and keep it going from there. Q. You won at your first attempt, and you seem to enjoy‑‑ you seem to enjoy kicking rugby balls over a crossbar‑‑ is this just the way you are?
SHANE LOWRY: It's just the way I am. I was talking even to Neil, my coach, last night. [] I'm just your normal 26‑year‑old guy that happens to be good at golf. I live my life the way I want. But like I'm not obsessed with the game, but you know, golf is my life like, you know what I mean, but I have a life outside of golf, as well.
Obviously I do what I think I need to do to compete at the highest level, and then after that, I go and hang out with my friends and my girlfriend and stuff like that. That's just the person I am and that's way I want to doit. I don't want to lock myself away and practice all day every day; it's just not me, and I don't think it would help me either. If I thought it would help me, I would do it, but I don't think it would.
It's hard, you're out here week‑in, week‑out, different guys do different things. You see a guy doing well, doing a certain thing, and it's hard not to try and say, well, maybe that will work for me. But you just need to do your own thing, and thankfully, I've got a good team of people around me that keep me on the right track and look after me well. Q. Do you sometimes put a lot of pressure on yourself?
SHANE LOWRY: Well, I think the start of this year was kind of a prime example of that. Obviously I'd done well at the Match Play, and got a few invites from there, and was trying so hard to do well and trying so hard to get into the Masters in the Top‑50 and all that. It's hard not to try hard. I mean, you're not human if you don't try hard.
But even this week, defending champion, I love the place, love the course. It's hard not to think, God, I think I have a chance of winning this week. But you need just to focus on one round ahead of me. Tomorrow, first tee shot is the 10th hole tomorrow. I just have to try and focus on that tee shot, and one shot a time, the old clichés. That's just the way that you have to go about your business. Q. Was there a particular point when you realized you were putting too much pressure on yourself?
SHANE LOWRY: Shooting 5‑, 6‑, 7‑over, you know you're not doing yourself justice. It's like, I beat myself up at the start of the year because every time I went over to play an invite in the States, I shot a bad score. And then I come back to Europe and I would play well and shoot good scores.
Just feel more comfortable here; it was like I was trying too hard to prove myself because I was on invites over there. It's hard to put your finger on it. If I knew what it was, obviously wouldn't do it.
You know, I'm sure I learned from that. I think that experience has helped me in the rest of this season, and I'm sure it will help me if I ever go back and try and play over there again. Q. A lot of the top players in Europe are now playing in America. What can the European Tour do so that the top players in the world play here?
SHANE LOWRY: It's hard to know what can be done. I mean, I don't know. It's hard‑‑ those top guys, it's hard when you're a top player in the world to turn down playing THE PLAYERS Championship there and coming back here to play in a tournament for a million Euros. People aren't going to do it. I don't know what The European Tour are going to do, but I think‑‑ personally I think The European Tour is brilliant, like I love it and I love playing on it.
You know, even the guys that‑‑ like you talk to some of the guys that played over in the States this year, they much prefer playing in Europe and some of them are coming back to play in Europe. I think that says a lot about The European Tour.
But what they can do‑‑ it's tough times obviously at the minute and it's hard to get money and sponsors for tournaments. We just have to kind of ride through the bad time and see what happens the other end of it. Q. Players playing their home open‑‑
SHANE LOWRY: Well, you go the likes of the Seve Trophy last week, probably some of the players should have come and played in that. You look at The Presidents Cup, all the top American players and all the top international players played in that, so why shouldn't the big players play in the Seve Trophy. It's just little things like that that I think could help improve the Tour.
SARAH GWYNN: Shane, thank you very much for coming in. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports